Plans for Australia’s tallest tower

A Melbourne consortium has laid plans for Australia’s tallest building after lodging a development application for a $400 million twin-tower project on the Gold Coast.

The landmark development, comprising two slim towers connected by a bridge on the 22nd floor, would reach a height of close to 400 meters which would dwarf the Q1 in Surfers Paradise, currently regarded as the country’s tallest high-rise tower at 322.5 meters.

The proposed 1 Park Lane development is earmarked for a vacant 1,245sqm site at 1 and 6 Park Lane, next to the Southport Bowls Club, and would create up to 12,000sqm of office space and 197 residential units.

There are plans for the skybridge to feature a restaurant, function space and bar. Construction of the towers is expected to create roughly 1,000 jobs.

The move comes five weeks after one of the Gold Coast’s oldest retail centers - Australia Fair - unveiled plans for a $50 million makeover as competition for shoppers in the Southport CBD heats up.

It also follows the opening of Queen Street Village, which is a $500 million project located less than 1km up the road on the former Gold Coast Hospital site. The project, undertaken by the Buchan Group, incorporates retail, dining, entertainment, residential, childcare, commercial, hotel, health and aged-care facilities.

Project architect Simon Knott said the development would activate a site that has been underutilized in Southport for years.

“Southport has been primed for a development like this for some time. It has everything going for it, but with so many dormant sites in the CBD it has been a sleeping giant for too long,” Knott said.

“The 1 Park Lane proposal will bring to the market a broad range of apartments that will have direct access to extensive public amenities in the area, including the light rail, Australia Fair shopping center and access to CBD facilities and the Broadwater Parklands.

“Our consultant team’s research also shows that the office tower will be a significant driver of economic activity in its own right.”

The development comes amid a looming shortage of prime A-grade office space on the Gold Coast, with the project set to become the most significant new office development in the city for more than a decade.

Recent data from the Property Council of Australia (PCA) reveals that the Gold Coast office vacancy rate fell from 10.1 per cent to 8.1 per cent for the six months to July, a level not seen in nearly 15 years.

Private investors behind the consortium for 1 Park Lane include experienced developer Baracon, Melbourne-based funds manager Payton Group, leading Australian architect BKK, town planners Urbis, and engineering consultancy Van der Meer.

“The 1 Park Lane development brings to Southport a people-focused design that will bring to life an area of the CBD that is totally underutilised at present,” said Knott.

“Not only are we designing a new Gold Coast benchmark, but we are also creating a new public domain that is very much needed in the area.”

The development would also feature a photoelectric solar cell wall on its western-facing side, harnessing renewable energy to provide for reuse within the apartment building.

Gold Coast Councillor Brooke Patterson said the project is a great opportunity for Southport to be recognized as the growth corridor it is.

“The 1 Park Lane team seem to have embraced this in their submission which our planning officers will now assess,” she said.